Sooooo, I thought I’d write a reflection about my thoughts from my week in Edinburgh with David Townsend and share it with ya’ll 🙂
In February 2015 I spent a week working with David within renewable energy, specifically geothermal energy. David has started his own company, it is the first geothermal company in Scotland and he has been very successful in getting it up and running. He has won several highly competitive business funding competitions, including most recently Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also a member of the Scottish Government Geothermal Energy Expert Group. Thank you for an amazing week David, it was very educational as well as incredibly fun!
I suppose, out of all the things I’ve learnt and the amazing conversations I experienced, I’d like to very briefly share with you my reflections about Climate Change, because it deserves all the attention it can get. Before I start, I would just like to say that we are now way past the point of discussion about whether CC is happening and whether humans have contributed towards it. It’s definitely happening and you’re contributing to it. These days it is very easy to research about how fast it’s happening and all the consequences it holds. Regardless, I’ll tell you now that if we continue the way we are, then we won’t recognise this earth by 2100. What’s worse is that if we don’t severely change the way we produce energy within the next 10 years the consensus is that CC will be irreversible and all we can do by that point is procrastinate the inevitable. The other night I came across a recent and extremely well made short presentation by Al Gore that sums it up neatly, definitely check it out now: http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/al-gore-explains-in-davos-whats-next-for-climate-in-2015/
Now I know there is a lot of destructive forces taking place around the world that makes life just that more depressing, but Climate Change is different. It’s different because of several reasons. Firstly its evidently global, and nobody can escape it, so EVERYBODY is affected by it, even if you live in Norway! Secondly its man-made, but not intentionally, its rather a consequence of all our “innocent” actions of ignorance towards the implications of CO2. Thirdly climate change is obviously a problem we can only solve if everyone participates and takes action, even doing the small things in our day to day lives. There are several other reasons as to why CC and its problems are different, but what they are all screaming at me is that CC is the perfect global problem to be a point of unity!!
What do I mean by a perfect problem for a point of unity? The way I see it, is that human beings are the smartest and most evolved species (by far), not because of their physical strength or speed, but because they were able to work together, in unity and achieve the most remarkable of achievements. It’s pretty obvious that we are ’stronger’ when in brotherhood. One of the sad truths these days among the peoples of the world is that we have little points of unity. However, imagine if CC became a conscious global point of unity, where our goals are not just the same, but also noble (wanting to be green)! Imagine if we worked side-by-side, all the peoples, countries and governments towards a greener globe. It would be awesome!
Besides this point, an even more amazing idea would be to say: “Hey, if we managed to unite through Climate Change, what would the consequences be?” I’m sure we all imagine it differently, but I imagine this source of unity to be infectious, where we are reminded and truly see the effects of working together and feel the urge to want to help out more, solving so many of the other problems we have today. Putting our personal differences aside and focusing on the points of unity.
Why should we care? Well whatever and whoever you are, whatever you believe in your life, there are many reasons as to why you should care, but only you can answer that question yourself. But let me tell you, if you live in 2015 and unfortunately still struggle believing in the severeness of CC, then helping out would STILL be in your best interest, because a greener economy would make your everyday life so much better. There are many examples as to how your life would be better/cheaper/fresher/cleaner but I won’t mention them here. I can’t really see a negative outcome of working towards a greener economy, I mean, even if we have destroyed the climate beyond its turning point, at least it brought us together.
It’s hard to stress the importance of Climate Change and even harder to raise consciousness so that people actively support it, with all our personal problems or not personally being affected by it yet. In the end we either unite or we perish! I really hope we focus on CC and forget about all the other destructive forces that don’t really matter, and rather let the unity around CC solve many of the other problems.
Let 2015 be the Climate Year and raise consciousness! =))
Thank you,
Mateen Leo Ram